Healthy Heart

Fad diets have touted using the glycemic index (GI)-a measure of how quickly a food boosts blood sugar-as a magic bullet for targeting weight loss. But science keeps finding that the facts are more complicated

Quenching your thirst for answers about sodas and your health. Soft-drink lovers who thought they were doing something good for their health got a jolt-not the highly caffeinated soda kind-earlier this year when a report linked diet sodas to greater risk of stroke and heart attack. The surprising findings captured headlines and blared over the nightly news: In a study of 2,564 people

Pathogens in meat and poultry cost the US economy more than any other sources of food-borne illnesses, according to a new study, and the top 10 most damaging pathogens take an annual toll of $8.1 billion

Sweden is poised to become the first in the world to phase out the use of the controversial chemical bisphenol A (BPA) in food and beverage can linings, following a European Union ban on BPA in baby bottles

There may be something to those anecdotes about people suffering a heart attack during a bout of uncharacteristic physical activity-including sex. Tufts researchers who analyzed 14 studies of the cardiac effects of episodic physical activity found that it was associated with a short-term more than three-fold increase in heart-attack risk and five-fold increase in the risk of sudden cardiac death

If youre 50 or older, Uncle Sam says yes. Heres why and how best to get it. When the latest federal Dietary Guidelines for Americans were released earlier this year with the recommendation that people age 50 and older should get extra vitamin B12 through fortified foods or supplements, one expert commented, Its not very difficult to anticipate the sudden spate of fortified with vitamin B12 as recommended in the 2010 Dietary Guidelines messaging that will populate the fronts of boxes and bags. Before the hype hits the grocery stores

In a sure-to-be-controversial new study, Belgian researchers have challenged the conventional wisdom that cutting back on salt reduces the risk of developing high blood pressure and dying from cardiovascular causes

Heres news that might settle the nerves of heavy coffee drinkers: Two new studies suggest that high coffee consumption might be linked to reduced risks of the most aggressive form of breast cancer in women and lethal prostate cancer in men

You already know that the omega-3 fats found in fish (DHA and EPA) are good for your heart-but how much do you need to see a benefit? A new review of eight previous studies says a daily intake of 250 mg of omega-3s seems to be the threshold

Goodbye food pyramid, hello plate-with a side order of science-based dietary advice. After nearly two decades, the familiar if sometimes confusing food pyramid has gone the way of the pharaohs, replaced by a new official icon to remind Americans how to eat right: MyPlate. In unveiling the symbol along with USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack and US Surgeon General Dr. Regina M. Benjamin, First Lady Michelle Obama said, When it comes to eating, whats more simple than a plate?